Dante Gomez
|latest = }} Dante Gomez is a former gang member that was framed for the murder of his girlfriend Ana Escobedo. History Dante was raised by his grandmother Regina, particularly after the murder of his father Marco who was "the worst father in the world." Dante's uncle was murdered seven years after his father and neither murder was ever solved. Dante grew up across the street from Ana Escobedo who was about a year younger than him. Dante and Ana fell in love and began dating over the years. However, by the time he was sixteen, Dante had dropped out of school and joined a gang. Dante's best friend was his fellow gang member Hector Zamora who would later call Dante "the only real friend I ever had." Years later, Dante's grandmother would describe Dante at this point in his life as a rotten kid who wouldn't listen and did a lot of bad things. On June 7, 1997, Dante robbed a liquor store in Northridge with Hector. That same night, Ana was murdered in a park and the gun planted in Dante's car. Dante was arrested for Ana's murder by Detective Julio Sanchez with Cesar Padilla coming forward as a confidential witness to the crime. Due to Dante's gang affiliation and relationship with Ana, no one questioned if Dante could in fact be innocent, not even his own grandmother who had raised him. Though Dante could have instead confessed to the armed robbery which would have gotten him less time in jail, Dante knew that if he confessed, everyone would know that Hector was his accomplice. As a result, due to Hector's preexisting two strikes, Hector would go to prison for the rest of his life. To protect his best friend, Dante confessed to murdering Ana and accepted a deal of second degree murder with a sentence of twenty years in prison. Unknown to everyone, Cesar was the actual killer, jealous of Ana's relationship with Dante while Cesar was obsessed with her. Dante's efforts kept Hector out of prison for seven more months before he was arrested and got a life sentence for a different crime. Hector felt that Dante wasted his life, especially since Hector only lasted seven more months after Dante's conviction. As a result, Hector placed Dante under his protection, threatening to kill anyone who harmed Dante. Hector's protection kept Dante safe in prison and he got out of the gang life and even got a college degree. In 2014, seventeen years after Ana's murder, Dante's grandmother became very ill and Dante realized that Ana's true killer was still out there. In an effort to get Ana justice and to exonerate himself so that Regina would not die thinking Dante was a killer, Dante sought parole. Dante wrote a letter in which he confessed to killing Ana and asked for forgiveness to help convince the parole board to release him. Despite the objections of the Escobedo's, the parole board was moved by Dante's letter and granted him a two year parole. Following his release, Dante returned to Regina's house. Though Regina did not reject her grandson totally, she made Dante sleep in the garage until he earned the right to sleep in her house again. However, Regina allowed Dante to eat breakfast with her as a family and he would wake her up in the morning. While living with his grandmother, Dante tried to convince everyone that he was innocent of Ana's murder. A week after his release, Dante visited Julio at the Major Crimes Division of the LAPD and made it clear to Julio that he held no hard feelings for Julio arresting him and even appreciated the chance it gave him to turn his life around. Dante requested Julio's help in solving Ana's murder and supplied Julio with the address of the liquor store he had robbed with Hector as his alibi. Despite Dante's earnest efforts, Julio believed that Dante was seeking the confidential witness who testified against him for revenge. Despite this, Julio was forced to inform Captain Sharon Raydor of Dante's visit due to the rules. Undeterred by Julio's refusal to help, Dante next appealed to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office to reopen Ana's murder investigation without success. That night, Dante visited the Escobedo's in an attempt to convince Ana's family of his innocence. Unable to kill Dante without facing Hector's wrath, Ana's brothers Manuel and Carlos brutally beat Dante with a wooden baseball bat, but left him alive. Dante returned to his grandmother's garage where he rested until Cesar Padilla arrived. Cesar, Ana's true killer, beat Dante with an aluminum bat, breaking one of Dante's vertebrae and rendering him paralyzed from the neck down. This second attack proved fatal to Dante while Cesar left a scale and baggies near Dante's body to make it seem like a drug-related murder. After Dante failed to come to breakfast the next morning, his body was found by Regina who called the police. Julio blamed himself for Dante's murder as he would not hear the young man out when he asked for help. The police were able to identify Hector as the other man from the robbery and after being told about Dante's murder, Hector confirmed that Dante had robbed the liquor store with him and explained why Dante lied about it. After learning that Cesar had been obsessed with Ana, the LAPD realized that he was the killer of both Ana and Dante. Faced with Hector Zamora's wrath for murdering Dante, Cesar took a deal where he served his sentence in a prison far away under a fake name for killing Ana and Dante. Following Cesar's confession, Dante was exonerated for killing Ana. Fulfilling Dante's wish for his grandmother not to die thinking that Dante was a killer, a remorseful Julio visited Regina and told her of the development. Regina was shocked but relieved that Dante was innocent after all and Julio undertook to solve the murders of Dante's father and uncle as well. Appearances ''Major Crimes'' Season 3 # Category:Characters Category:Major Crimes Category:MC Season 3 Category:Armed Robbers Category:Murder Victims Category:Deceased